Lilah Sutphen: Surrogacy Soapbox
How Young Teens Are Different From Older Millennials
Real-Life Partridge Family Too Wholesome for TV
Filed under: In The News, Amazing Kids, Amazing Parents, New In Pop Culture
Credit: ShaeLaurel.com
They're like a real-life Partridge family.
Well, except there are four kids instead of five. Plus, the father is still alive.
Oh, and they can actually play their own instruments.
Other than that, the similarities are amazing. They are, anyway, if you're looking for an angle to plug a new reality show. There's only one problem: Andrew and Janet Witchger and their four kids are too wholesome for television.
Yep, this would-be Partridge family out-wholesomed the TV Patridge family.
Producers have tried, CNN reports, to base a reality show on the Witchgers and their traveling family band, yet two years of tapes are gathering dust.
"They were looking for people who fight and don't like each other and they wanted all this internal conflict, and that's just not us," 17-year-old Kathryn Witchger tells CNN.
A show seemed like a good idea at the time.
Like the musical Partridge family from the 1970s sitcom, the Witchgers travel in a bus. Their journey started in 2001, when Andrew quit his job as a church music director. He and Janet sold their home, got in their bus and just kept going.
ShaeLaurel, the family's Irish folk music group, plays more than 250 shows a year in elementary schools, county fairs and Renaissance festivals across more than 35 states.
"Some people do look at us and think we're really strange," Andrew Witchger tells CNN. "But we're reminded every time we visit somebody that if we were in a house we wouldn't see each other as much. That's how families get disconnected, because it's pretty much inherent that the bigger the house, the bigger the divide."
The Witchger kids -- Christian, 16, Kathryn, 17, Jessica, 19, and Andy, 21 -- are homeschooled. Well, bus-schooled.
They assign themselves homework and give themselves grades, teaching themselves. School is not easy, they tell CNN.
"Believe it or not, we're pretty tough on ourselves," Jessica tells the network. "We're hard-core teachers."
Despite two years of effort by a television crew to show the seamy underbelly of the family Witchger, CNN reports too many family confessionals ended with smiling kids and parents saying, "It was really fun."
"Yeah, if we didn't like each other, we would totally live in a house," Kathyrn tells CNN. She's smiling, of course.
Remember how the Partridges used to say, "C'mon, get happy"? The side of the Witchgers' bus reads: "Keep Smiling."
Related: Mel B. Spices Things Up With Her 'Scary' New Reality Show
Your<span>Voice</span>
Ask Us Anything About Parenting
Recently Asked
- Would you request up front payment from foreign nation and a recurring debt with the united states
- Why did you lie and tell the world that, "The Left Behind Video game kills Jews and Atheists"?
- My daughter (14 yrs) was just kicked out of her Girl Scout Cadettes troop. Her offense? Having ADD (not hyperactive) and she wasn't picking up on a tr...
TheTalkies:RelatedVideos
-
Meet The Band That Inspired 'The Partridge Family'
Powerful documentary about 60s pop chart-toppers The Cowsills, the real-life inspiration behind 'The Partridge Family.'
-
Emma Stone Got Start On VH1 Reality Show
Emma Stone, the fiery starlet from Superbad, Zombieland and The Help, started off her showbusiness career on the 2004 VH1 reality show In Search of the New Partridge Family, where she won the role of Laurie Partridge. Rena Karefa-Johnson takes a look at the footage and decides, Disgusting or Delicious? What do you think?
-
David Cassidy: Davy Jones Was 'Deeply Caring Guy'
Former teen idol David Cassidy and the late Davy Jones had a lot in common growing up, both musically and due to their respective TV fame, and the former Partridge Family star tells ET, "The world feels a little less light today, and sad." "I loved the guy. He became my friend later and I admired his talent, respected him a lot for enduring the kind of backlash to having that kind of fame," says Cassidy. "He was a deeply caring guy." AUDIO: Davy Jones 911 Call
-
Answering Questions About Blended Families
Child Development/Behavior Specialist and Best selling author of award winning Just Tell Me What To Say & You're Not The Boss Of Me, Betsy Brown Braun, answers community questions about blended families and what to do with the “Mine! Mine! Mine!” stage.
SitesWeLove
- Site Map
- |
- Staff
- |
- Terms of Service
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Trademarks
- |
- Advertise With Us
- |
- About Our Ads
- |
- AOL Downloads
- |
- Contact Us
- |
© Copyright 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Aol Family
ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)
9-13-2010 @ 4:23PM
Abraxus said...Good news and happiness doesn't sell on reality TV - people want to see the common white trash types fight it out. We regular people, who love to see happy families don't watch reality TV, so the audience isn't there! Having said that, I don't think you can say a 19 and a 21 year old are home schooled - they are adults for goodness sakes!
Reply
9-14-2010 @ 12:02PM
BTDT said...Pretty good band.
The drummer's a killer.
9-14-2010 @ 1:40PM
Nicole said...Yes, that's exactly why no one wants to watch shows where there is always a happy ending in 30 minutes. Too bad about your hatred for shows and calling them "white trash". You probably watched them because you could relate to being so. However, not all shows are "white trash". The Duggar's are certainly not white trash nor do they fight and maybe, just maybe this show would work and then we wouldn't have to hear people whine about what's on tv when there is 998 other channels they can change too.
9-14-2010 @ 4:24PM
AHS said...What does their age matter if they haven't finished their schooling yet?
9-15-2010 @ 9:52PM
yahoofashion said...╭⌒╮WELCOME
----- Http://www.yahoofashion.net ~ ¤ ╭⌒╮ ╭⌒╮
╭⌒╭⌒╮╭⌒╮～╭⌒╮
,））））,''）~~ ,''~）
╱◥█◣ ╱◥█◣
｜田｜田｜｜田｜田｜
╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬ Http://www.yahoofashion.net
Ed Hardy AF JUICY POLO Bikini $25;
Handbags(Coach lv fendi d&g) $35
Tshirts (Polo ,ed hardy,lacoste) $16
Jean(True Religion,ed hardy,coogi) $30
Sunglasses(Oakey,coach,gucci,Armaini) $16
New era cap $15
Bikini (Ed hardy,polo) $25
╬╬╬ Http://www.yahoofashion.net ╬╬╬
╰══════════════╯bfgvhnfgrjhnrt
9-13-2010 @ 9:22PM
jackfreeman0006 said...12354
Reply
9-13-2010 @ 9:22PM
jackfreeman0006 said...12354
Reply
9-14-2010 @ 6:16AM
dhayescharlotte said...Don't change yourselves for pathetic television. Keep doing what you're doing, being who you truly are. Jesus Christ will still bless you.
Reply
9-14-2010 @ 11:45AM
fentex5 said...Can't you religious nuts EVER keep your particular brand of religion out of the faces of those of us who may not drink your same flavor of Kool Aid? Many of us are adherents of non-proselytizing branches of mainstream religions that do not foist any people (real or fictional) upon others as EVERONE'S saviour.
9-14-2010 @ 12:46PM
WILL said...fentex5... It's very simple , If you see a post with "Jesus Christ" in it dont read it
9-14-2010 @ 9:25AM
Bruce said...Good for you! Have fun and keep doing what you do. There is an audience for joy!
Reply
9-14-2010 @ 9:29AM
lionruby said...Frankly, they sound ghastly.
The music is middle of the road and vapid, the family doesn't seem to have the depth or human sensitivity that families that fight it out do. People have to earn their humanity - those who never have conflict never achieve.
Glad I live in a house!
Reply
9-14-2010 @ 11:16AM
enoughalready said...And I hope you STAY in that house and never come out! Geeze. Earn your humanity?? Achieve what?? They play instuments, teach themselves, work hard, love each other and have fun!
Oh yes, pain, misery and conflict are soooo much better! Families that squabble, are never there for each other and then fight over who gets what when someone dies are soooo much better!
Please.
9-14-2010 @ 11:31AM
Blue said...They are pretty ghastly in that Lawrence Welk kind of way. They're technically proficient and miss by a mile. Sorry, as nice as they might be, I'm just not interested. By the same token, I don't watch Jersey Shore either. They're ghastly in a different way and I'm not interested in them either.
9-14-2010 @ 9:34AM
Harry Hurt said...I would say the Lord Jesus has already blessed them. One of His biggest blessings is that he DIDN'T let them get on TV. Most (not all, of course) television shows today are a cesspool of sin, and the Witchgers should be glad they won't be a part of it. Had they gotten on TV, the producers would dictate what they sang, and you can bet it would be of immoral content. The stance would be liberal, and you can bet one of the male singers would be portrayed as homosexual.
Reply
9-14-2010 @ 9:48AM
PatrickPain said...I dont think so, the Partridge family didnt play hillbilly music.
Reply
9-14-2010 @ 10:07AM
C said...I would watch the show over the stuff that is on TV now. I still can't believe a positive show like Anthony Robbins show was cancelled after two shows. It was really good and had a great impact on people's lives. How about a new TV Network with only positive shows on it. I would watch it!
Reply
9-14-2010 @ 11:27AM
BTDT said...How about a new TV Network with only positive shows on it. I would watch it!
What a wonderful idea.
9-14-2010 @ 10:09AM
Charlie said...The networks create a catch-22. Wholesome isn't on TV because it doesn't sell. Wholesome doesn't sell because it isn't on TV. PUT IT ON... IT WILL SELL! It will be the ONE DIFFERENT thing on TV, an ALTERNATIVE that people are CRYING for, that people NEED and WANT! I, for one, am sick of the garbage on. I MISS wholesome.
Reply
9-14-2010 @ 10:17AM
Sam said...I hate them !!!!
Reply